Milan 5 Siena 1 - Match report

Wow, what a great victory. The result determine everything I guess so. Please, I don't wan't to lie you but Siena was better, and they were most of the game in the driver sit. Lots of events, lots of goals and only one Filippo Inzaghi. The SuperPippo never dies. With help of Pirlo and twice Pato, We make it five - one.

The week of good news, of the recoveries of two important players like Kaká and Ronaldinho, culminated with the away match against Siena. A difficult match, on a difficult pitch: in front of their home crowd this season they had lost just twice and drew five. Until now the Tuscan side had conceded only five goals at home.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti had no last-minute surprises up his sleeve, and in an attempt to expunge the Artemio Franchi stadium and secure a place in the Champions League, he used the starting eleven everyone expected: Abbiati, Zambrotta (300 appearences in Serie A), Maldini, Favalli, Jankulovski, Flamini, Pirlo, Ambrosini and Beckham once again behind (as against Atalanta) the couple Inzaghi and Pato. Impressive stats by the two Rossoneri strikers: 12 goals in the league for Pato, just two shy of 300 as a professional and 110 with Milan's shirt for SuperPippo. Three Golden Ball winners on the bench: Shevchenko, and the returning Kaká and Ronaldinho, who were out since respectively 7 and 19 February, and evidently still don't have the condition to play 90 minutes.

Bianconeri coach Marco Giampaolo answered with Curci, Zuniga, Portanova, Brandao, Del Grosso, Vergassola, Codrea, Barusso (and not Jarolim), Kharja, Maccarone and surprisingly, at his side, Calaiò. Available, among others, Ghezzal and Amoruso. Galloppa suspended.

Differently from other matches this season, in which the Bianconeri's defence pressed very high up the pitch, in the first few minutes Siena seemed to leave space for the Rossoneri's moves. In the 6th minute Flamini took advantage, inserting himself in the penalty area and found contact with Kharja's leg. For referee Ayroldi it's a penalty between the protests of the Tuscan fans. Pirlo hit it hard, Curci almost got it but it still went in. Milan in front.

In the 9th minute the Rossoneri were forced to do without Christian Abbiati who had to come off due to a bad knee injury after a clash with Favalli. In his place came Dida, who made his debut in the league.

Siena reacted; they started pressing with more intensity and tried to find the goal before Maccarone's nice right-footed volley from the edge of the area that went wide to Dida's left, then a header by Calaió which went just over the crossbar.

In the 37th minute Ambrosini was booked for a foul on Kharja: this meant he will miss the away game at Napoli. The free kick hit by Del Grosso was blocked with security by Dida.

In the 41st minute there was a deep ball by Zambrotta for Pato but Curci anticipated the Brazilian. In the 45th minute Vergassola, found in the area by Maccarone and pressed by Ambrosini, fired a right-footed volley that finished high.

In injury time, in the 48th minute, Milan doubled their lead thanks to Pippo's Inzaghi's magnificent goalscoring instinct: a corner from the left taken by Beckham was met by Superpippo's left-footed volley from inside the area which made it 2-0, and brought his total up to 299 goals.

The teams went back in the dressing room after a first half in which Milan did well to convert the few goalscoring chances and Siena perhaps didn't deserve the double disadvantage.

In the second half, after over a month of absence, Ricky Kaká finally made his return on the pitch as he came in to replace Ambrosini. Ricky immediately did well to play the ball around and give the Siena defence a headache.

In the 6th minute Calaió scored, but it was clearly offside and the referee stopped the move.

In the 10th minute, after playing a large part of the match in the shadows, Pato scored a fantastic goal, firing a great shot from distance that beat Curci to his left.

Three minutes later Kaká made an incredible mistake, missing a goal in front of an open goal a few steps away from Curci.

Siena did not give up and in the 17th they reduced the disadvantage through Maccarone, who scored his fourth goal against Milan with the Bianconeri's shirt: an angled shot that went in to Dida's left.

In the 26th minute there was the apotheosis for Superpippo Inzaghi, who received the ball from Pirlo and scored the 300th goal of his extraordinary career! To celebrate, he carried around a shirt with his name and, at the back, the round number which he had dreamed to reach, which closes a perfect circle: the first of his 300 goals as a professional, he scored with the shirt of Leffe against Siena on 20 December 1992.

In the last 20 minutes of the match, there was still time for some good and bad news: the good news was the 5-1 scored by Pato, who in the 33rd minute penetrated into the area, avoided Curci and slotted it into an empty net, confirming himself as Milan's top scorer of the season, with 14 league goals, 17 goals in total. The bad news, but fortunately it wasn't too serious, was Kaká's departure due to a contusion to his left foot. In his place Ronaldinho.

In the 40th minute Siena tried to answer the Rossoneri's goalscoring rout with Codrea, whose shot was unlucky and crashed against the crossbar.

It finished 1-5 for Milan: another step towards Europe was made.